"For decades, conservatives have railed against judicial activism, but Thursday’s decision striking down affirmative action by colleges and universities in admissions was the height of conservative judicial activism. The court rejected almost half a century of precedents, overturned decisions made by public and private universities across the country, and ignored the history of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

The experience of California — where affirmative action was eliminated by Proposition 209 in 1996 — shows that it still will be possible to have diversity in higher education, but it will take sustained effort and it will be difficult."

#Opinion by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky via LA Times

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-06-29/harvard-affirmative-action-case-supreme-court-race-college-admissions

#LawFedi #LawSchool #AffirmativeAction #SCOTUS

“Why don’t the Supreme Court justices understand that that they would benefit greatly from an ethics code and an independent office to assess their ethical issues?”
— #Opinion by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky via CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/22/opinions/scotus-cant-afford-another-self-inflicted-wound-chemerinsky

#SCOTUS #lawfedi #LawSchool

Officially graduated from #LawSchool 💜💛

Since 1983, U.S. News has published rankings of the nation’s law schools. For almost as long, there have been complaints about the way the rankings are done and what value they offer.

Last fall, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken announced that Yale — which consistently earned the top spot in the rankings — would no longer participate in the process because it is “undermining the core commitments of the legal profession.” Berkeley Law quickly followed, as did more than 60 law schools.

In this episode of the More Just podcast, Dean Chemerinsky talks to a blockbuster panel to discuss how we got here, what the revolt means, and what the future may hold: Dean Gerken, now in her second term leading Yale Law School; Colorado College President L. Song Richardson, who pulled her school out of the college rankings; and Colin Diver, a former dean at Penn Law and president of Reed College who’s been a longtime critic of the rankings.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/podcast-episode/the-future-of-law-school-rankings/

#LawFedi #LawSchool #Rankings #USNews

Chemerinsky: Time Is Running Out for John Roberts and the Supreme Court

"In light of the Supreme Court’s unwillingness to adopt an ethics code for itself, Congress must step in and pass a statute imposing standards. All other judges in the country — state and federal — are bound by ethical rules. It is inexcusable that the most important and powerful judges are not."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/12/opinion/ethics-supreme-court-congress.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

#LawFedi #LawSchool #SCOTUS #Ethics #Judiciary

Via CalMatters: California ranchers intentionally violated an emergency water order. Now lawmakers want to triple the fines

“The board doesn’t have the tools to act quickly,” said Michael Kiparsky, water program director at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley School of Law. “The fish don’t care if the lawyers are trying to figure out who’s right or wrong if they’re dead.”

https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/06/california-water-fines/

#LawFedi #EnvironmentalLaw #WaterLaw #California #LawSchool

Tracking the Diversity of Federal Judicial Clerks

For recent law school graduates, clerking for a federal judge can be a key career stepping stone, and the hiring process is both highly opaque and famously nerve-wracking. Even as law school cohorts have become more diverse, the clerkship ranks have remained heavily skewed toward white men, particularly from a handful of top-ranked law schools.

Leaders from Berkeley Law’s Berkeley Judicial Institute wanted to know why. So they asked 50 federal judges how and why they hire particular clerks in the first qualitative study of the issue. These conversations yielded a number of insights for law students, law schools, and other judges, from how much an aspiring clerk’s cover letter matters to the fact that “diversity” doesn’t mean the same thing to every judge. The pathbreaking study will be published in the Harvard Law Review later this year.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/podcast-episode/tracking-the-diversity-of-federal-judicial-clerks/

#LawFedi #LawSchool #LawProfs #Judiciary #Clerkships #Diversity

Chemerinsky: Social media and internet companies likely face more free speech challenges at the Supreme Court

"Sometimes there is great significance in what the U.S Supreme Court doesn’t do, and that was definitely so for two cases it handed down May 18 about the internet and social media."

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google, via ABA Journal

https://www.abajournal.com/columns/article/chemerinsky-social-media-and-internet-companies-likely-face-more-free-speech-challenges-at-the-supreme-court

#LawFedi #LawSchool #LawProfs #SCOTUS #SocialMedia #Twitter #Google #SupremeCourt

Final paper submitted! I’m officially done! #LawSchool

"The Supreme Court dealt a serious blow on Thursday to a core protection of workers, the right to strike."

– Berkeley Law Professor Catherine Fisk and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on Glacier Northwest, Inc. vs. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174, via Los Angeles Times Opinion.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-06-01/supreme-court-ruling-erodes-the-right-to-strike-by-empowering-employers-to-sue-unions

#LawFedi #LawSchool #LawProfs #workersrights #LaborLaw #SCOTUS

Cap and gown picked up. Next week is the walk! Officially gonna be a #LawSchool graduate!

Former San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin to pursue meaningful change as the founding executive director of Berkeley Law’s new Criminal Law & Justice Center.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/chesa-boudin-brings-lifetime-of-experience-to-lead-new-criminal-law-justice-center/

#LawFedi #LawSchool #CriminalLaw #ChesaBoudin #SanFrancisco

Berkeley Judicial Institute series aims to improve communication between media and the courts

“The work of the press, like that of the courts, is vital to a thriving democracy,” says Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who’s the executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute (BJI). “We encourage both institutions to explore new ways to make their relationship mutually productive.”

All three “Judges and the Press” sessions are free and open to anyone, with a target audience of judges, court administrators, and journalists.

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/berkeley-judicial-institute-judges-press-communication-event/

#LawFedi #LawProfs #LawSchool #Judiciary #Media #PublicMission

After asking the U.S. Attorney General to act, our Policy Advocacy Clinic and other advocacy groups celebrated a Department of Justice letter urging states and local courts to reduce criminal legal system fines and fees.

Jeffrey Selbin, the clinic’s co-director, says lawmakers, agencies, and courts are “on notice that it’s time to stop trying to fund the justice system on the backs of those least able to afford it.”

Clinic Gains Federal Win
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/spotlight/policy-advocacy-clinic-gains-federal-win/

#LawFedi #LawProfs #LawSchool #DebtFreeJustice

Our torts professor decided to change the syllabus so we could cover the dominion case today 😆 #LawSchool

Berkeley Law's International Human Rights Law Clinic and Haki Na Sheria Initiative present "Digital Rush Hour: Digital Identity in Kenya and the Case for Requiring Human Rights Impact Assessments," a webinar launching their work on the novel question of States’ duties under international law to conduct Human Rights Impact Assessments before implementing digital government projects and related laws and policies, and how such a requirement would inform the implementation of digital ID in Kenya.

Online only, Thursday, April 27, 7-8am PDT

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-rush-hour-tickets-612837021027

#LawFedi #HumanRights #InternationalLaw #DigitalID #Kenya #LawSchool #LawProfs

(Reuters) - The University of California, Berkeley School of Law is among the first law schools to adopt a formal policy on student use of generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT.

“The approach of finals made us realize that we had to say something,” said Prof. Chris Hoofnagle. “We want to make sure we have clear guidelines so that students don’t inadvertently attract an honor code violation.”

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/u-california-berkeley-law-school-rolls-out-ai-policy-ahead-final-exams-2023-04-20/

#LawFedi #LawSchool #LawProfs #ChatGPT #AI #LawStudents

Today at 10am (PST): Generative AI: Trouble in Paradise?

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are all the rage, but do they have a copyright problem? These AI tools rely on computer code developed by others and in 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed arguing that these tools violate the rights of the original programmers. Join Joseph Saveri, one of the lawyers behind the lawsuit, Berkeley Law Professor @pamelasamuelson, and Mena Kaplan of Freshfields, to discuss these issues.

This webinar is presented with the Berkeley Spring Forum on M&A and the Boardroom. It is also the second of three webinars associated with the Berkeley Law AI Institute.

https://executive.law.berkeley.edu/boosts/generative-ai-and-copyright/

#AI #ChatGPT #LawFedi #LawSchool #BusinessLaw #ExecEd #Copyright #IP

Someone next to me in class is using ChatGPT to review the case we're talking about today. #LawSchool

From tort law to cheating, what is ChatGPT’s future in higher education?

It passed the bar exam, first with a mediocre score and then with a ranking among the top tier of newly minted lawyers. It scored better than 90% of SAT takers. It nearly aced the verbal section of the GRE — though it has room for improvement with AP Composition.

What's next? As one Berkeley Law professor summed up the task for his class: Try to “beat it.”

https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/03/21/from-tort-law-to-cheating-what-is-chatgpts-future-in-higher-education/

#LawSchool #LawStudents #LawFedi #ChatGPT #AI #BarExam #BerkeleyLaw #LawProfs